Polytechnic Tutor Challenge – UCOL Palmerston North

Hayden Robinson is a chef lecturer at UCOL Palmerston North. For the past two years, Hayden has taught students on the professional cookery, bakery and patisserie courses offered by the institute.

Prior to taking up his teaching role at UCOL, Hayden spent 18 years working as a chef throughout New Zealand as well as in Melbourne and Europe. One of his career highlights was spending a year in France at a hotel in the French Alps.

Last year, in search of resource materials to aid his teaching, Hayden was directed towards The Chip Group™ Online Training. Immediately he saw the benefits of the training and was eager to incorporate it into UCOL’s professional cookery programme.

“I came across the online training about a year and a half ago following a recommendation from the Heart Foundation. I completed all of the modules myself and for something that was so simple to do I thought they were incredibly useful.

“They cover all the principles involved in frying chips in a short space of time and are very easy and straightforward to learn.”

Hayden said because frying is a common method of cooking chips in New Zealand, it is important that students are trained early on the right techniques.

“Students will undoubtedly have to fry chips at some point in their careers.  Providing them with this training helps to build a solid base of knowledge and stops them developing bad frying practices early on.”

The Chip Group™ Online Training is now a compulsory part of the professional cookery courses at UCOL.

Hayden believes completing the training will be advantageous to the careers of his students.

“Any extra knowledge and training that a young chef can demonstrate to employers that they have acquired is always beneficial,” Hayden said.

Hayden said he has received positive feedback about the training from students.

UCOL student Deidre Crucikshank believes the training has already helped her.

“The Online Training is really useful because it covers all the necessary principles in a clear-cut way. It’s vital to know the correct techniques for both cooking chips and cleaning vats when embarking on a culinary career.   Furthermore, in these health conscious times, it’s also important to know how to cook better quality chips.”